EPHRAIM HARDCASTLE: On Her Majesty's Secret Service

Old Etonian magician Drummond Money-Coutts, 26, has a social conscience, say friends. That’s why his next public stunt, in November, is on behalf of the homeless charity Shelter. He’ll spend a week sleeping in the window of the ultra-smart Knightsbridge department store Harvey Nichols, without eating or drinking anything but water. Ten years ago, at Eton, Drummond performed for a visitor, the Queen. ‘One of my proudest moments,’ he says. Perhaps HM will give him a wave while passing HN.

Mishal Husain savaged on Twitter

BBC news presenter Mishal Husain, pictured, is savaged on Twitter by angry David Cameron fans who thought she’d been too negative while interviewing the Prime Minister on Sunday. Curiously, only a truncated, two-minute clip of their prickly encounter survives on the BBC website. A rising star at the corporation, Northampton-born Ms Mishal, 39, who is of Pakistani extraction, proved she can be tough – while retaining the innate airs and graces polished at posh Cobham Hall School, Kent.

WHY did the Senegalese president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, Lamine Diack, clamp his fist over the flowers he presented to the three marathon medal winners, all Africans? Perhaps because Africans don’t regard flowers as suitable gifts. They do seem inappropriate for athletes, especially the hulking field sport types. The Jane Packer flower shop in London supplied 4,400 bouquets, which featured roses, lavender, rosemary, mint and wheat, all designed to look like medieval nosegays. All very charming, but business-like Diack grasped their heads, thrusting the stalks at the bemused marathon stars.

Her Majesty's stuntman

WATCHED by an estimated one billion TV viewers, stuntman Gary Connery, pictured, dressed as the Queen, parachuted from a helicopter into the Olympic Games. He’ll now demonstrate his full range of stunts on a world tour, billed as ‘Gary Connery – On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’. You wouldn’t expect a stuntman to hide his light under a bushel.

THERE was a poignant omission from The Who’s performance of their hit My Generation, at the Olympics closing ceremony. They left out the 1965 ditty’s most pungent line, ‘Hope I die before I get old’. The band’s Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend are 68 and 67 respectively.

RACING type Charlie Brooks dedicates his new thriller, Switch, to ‘Rebekah – the best wife in the world – who inspires me with her sense of decency, her clarity of thought and her integrity’. The pair face trial in the News International phone hacking case. Two other members of the Chipping Norton Set – Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson and Blur guitarist Alex James – are quoted, respectively, saying Charlie’s work is ‘turbo-charged’ and ‘magnificent’. Commentaire n’est pas nécessaire!